ROMFORD,U.K-The recent story dated May 2nd about the closure of Romford Raiders ice hockey club took a new twist this week with the directors of Venturecore Ltd (Owners of the rights the name ‘Romford Raiders’) hitting back in the allegations placed at their door over the closure of the team. 
Lorna Wyrill stated that the negotiations between the two parties, Venturecore and Snowblades Ltd (Operators of the Romford Raiders) had begun back in February with a view to putting in place a contract for Snowblades to run the team for another season, as they have done for the last three years. The contract to run the Raiders expired at the end of April.
The reason Wyrill gave for negotiations breaking down was mainly the issue of Snowblades’ accounts and their standing with Companies House, the organisation all limited companies have to be listed with to be allowed to trade. According to the Companies House website, Snowblades last filed accounts for the year ending 31 March 2007. Their returns were filed up to 07/03/08 so both are overdue by some time. Wyrill and Venturecore felt this was the main stumbling block and without guarantees that Snowblades would file their paperwork or provide documentation stating their solvency and financial stability, there was no chance of Snowblades being awarded the rights to run the team under the name “Romford Raiders” from Romford Ice Arena for the upcoming season. Wyrill commented; “We wanted to see a guarantee that Snowblades and their directors would still be operating the company in a year’s time and that guarantee was not forthcoming. We felt that if Andy French was so relaxed and flaunting of his own company and how he ran it then we were not comfortable with him and his directors treating the Romford Raiders the same way.”
Wyrill also stated that French, co-director of Snowblades along with Allison Taylor, informed Venturecore last Monday, 27 April, that they were not in a position to run the team any longer and would no longer be seeking to renew the contract. In the meeting held at the rink, the Snowblades management team informed fans, players and coaches that as far as they were concerned that was it for ice hockey in Romford for the foreseeable future. Since that date the junior ice hockey club has been resurrected, under the ownership of Venturecore.
Wyrill was adamant that senior ice hockey was not dead at Romford “We will be doing all we can to keep ice hockey alive, but with the players that have signed contracts already and wish to return, we will need to look into the viability of it and whether we can afford to keep the teams going.” Wyrell said
In the previous article it was claimed that there were new caveats to the contract from previous years which were unacceptable to Snowblades and the Romford management. Wyrill refuted these claims; “All that was new in the contract was that we would have the guarantees in place that Snowblades would fulfil their obligations to ourselves and Companies House. Everything was as in previous years. Where the club is making these claims from we do not know as they were certainly not contained in the contracts we issued to them.” Wyrell said
With regards to the short term future of senior ice hockey in Romford, it is not clear where the club will go from here. Wyrill said “At this time no other parties have been approached to run the Raiders, but we will be looking into running them ourselves, should it be financially viable”.
An unnamed source connected with the Raiders stated; “What we need to realise is that the rink is a business. It is there to make money and with the way the crowds declined at some games last season, there was no way the club would be making money. The normally busy bar was quiet after games, but with the lower attendances that was to be expected. The only time it was busy was when the bigger games were on and the playoff game, but they were few and far between. The rink needs to be making ends meet on a week to week basis.”
There is a council meeting planned for the next week or so where fans have been invited to air their views and for those that can’t attend the Head of Cultural and Leisure services, Simon Parkinson, has asked that their views be emailed to him at the following address simon.parkinson@havering.gov.uk
As the credit crunch begins to bite, it is sad that rinks are forced to look at their financial situations and see where they can or can’t make money. Sadly hockey is expensive sport, like it or not, to run and play and with everyone tightening belts it is one of the first things on the list to go.
No-one wants to see the Raiders die off, even arch-rivals fans of the Chelmsford Chieftains are doing their bit to support the cause, but unfortunately it appears there is not a lot of hope of them continuing. Although many fans are still optimistic something can be sorted after the council meeting, most expect that that meeting could also be the end of Snowblades’ involvement with Romford ice hockey and possibly the end of senior ice hockey in Romford.
Once the outcome is known, Prohockeynews will bring you the news as it becomes known. Contact the author at Pete.lewis@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.